HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain again asked for a new province for Mohajirs on Friday, saying "if you do not like Sindhi Urdu speakers then make a separate province for them".

Addressing a public gathering, Altaf Hussain said that things can get more serious, and if not taken wisely the demand for a province could turn into a demand of a country. He criticised the PPP government over local government elections and illegal delimitations issue. "Sindhi- and Urdu-speaking people want to live together and do not want any division," he asserted.

The MQM chief lashed out at the Sindh government, demanding immediate resolution of the problems of the Mojahir community. Altaf Hussain claimed that the Urdu-speaking population of Sindh outnumbers the Sindhi population which, he said, can be verified through an independent UN census.

Addressing PPP's Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari, he said if the concerns of Mohajir community are not addressed in a timely manner, "we'll call for a separate province for now and if the problems are still not solved, the demand for province can become the demand for separate country".

Altaf said, "We are also children of Sindh, if we have lived side by side in Sindh for so long, we can live in separate provinces as well". The MQM leader remarked that the Urdu-speaking community knows "how to cross rivers of blood… and we know how to take what is ours". He said, "We didn't come to Pakistan to become slaves, neither are we here to become masters, we merely want to become equal citizens."

Altaf also demanded the immediate suspension of "operation against MQM workers". "We know how to sacrifice lives, we have done that in the past, we can do that again." He vowed to open the Sindh University in Hyderabad if the provincial government does not do it in a month, giving a deadline to the government. Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari responded immediately on micro-blogging website Twitter, saying "we'll die but not give away Sindh".

The participants of the gathering raised slogans like "our brother our saeen, Altaf bhai Altaf bhai". Following Bilawal's tweet, Altaf Hussain responded immediately live on TV in the following words: "Mr Bilawal, we know your sentiments, we are good boys, not bad boys; you are my nephew. I advise you to think several times before you speak."

Altaf then took on to the establishment in the following words: "I am addressing the establishment; you want to sideline half of the population of Sindh. When will you interfere?"

Defending former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, Altaf said that Article 6 also applies to ex-COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and if Musharraf is being tried they should be tried too.

End.

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